| APRIL 2008 -- Anyone in town who was reading newspapers in 1883 would have been absorbed with the colorful stories of the time: the emergence of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, the eruption of the volcano Krakatoa, the introduction of electrically lighted night baseball games, the start of vaudeville and the completion of the Brooklyn Bridge.
Something happened in Monroe that year that still resounds today as well: it was the year that James Burr, an important orchard owner, began the Monroe Harmony Grange.
The Grange Hall, a white building that looks much like an 1800s town hall, is on Route 110 at the junction of Route 111 and is a reminder of past years when farming was the way of life in Monroe.
"When they originally met, it was probably in church halls, because that was built around 1900," said Nancy Zorena, president of the Monroe Historical Society.
"Burr was an educated farmer. He was very wealthy," Zorena said.
An archival letter from the files of the Monroe Historical Society tells the tale: "I have been expecting all along you would be ready to organize a Grange or a society of Patrons of Husbandry which is the best society for farmers made up of farmers, their wives and daughters for their mutual benefit socially, morally and educationally. Let us know how you get along in the enterprise," Burr was told in a letter dated Jan. 3, 1883, by Hugh Mitchelson, apparently a Grange advocate.
It showed the influence Burr, the orchard owner, and the Grange, as an organization, had at the time, when Monroe had a population of about 1,000 .
The Monroe Grange today is one of 85 Grange halls statewide, with about 6,000 members. Granges in the region include Greenfield Hill in Fairfield, Naugatuck Farmill River in Shelton, Hamden, Redding, Rock Rimmon in Beacon Falls and Trumbull.
The Grange welcomes everyone, even if they're not farmers. Grange membership is open to anyone older than 14. The groups today have three key roles: community service, legislative lobbying and fraternity. The Grange was once a place where farmers learned about new fertilizers. Now it is likely to be the site of crafts shows.
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